Al-Jazeera's Melissa Chan gives us a fascinating glimpse of student life at a Chinese Communist Party school.
Inside a Chinese Communist Party school
Shanghai Rego International School now facing forced relocation
Last week, we told you about the visa and financial problems that Shanghai Rego International School was reportedly experiencing. Things are just about to get worse for them because district authorities have refused to continue leasing land to it. This means the school will have to move elsewhere within the city when its current lease is up January 2013.
Quote of the Day: Cui Yongyuan on what Chinese textbooks never told him
"When we were young, the textbooks told us that China fed 22% of the world's population with just 7% of the world's arable land, but here's what they didn't tell us -- that this 22% of the world's population feeds 60% of the world's public servants; that this 22% of the world's population has only been given 3% of the world's education budget; that this 22% of the world's population has 97% of its wealth concentrated in the hands of the 1%; that this 22% of the world's population has been consuming 90% of the world's toxic food, paying the world's highest taxes and doing the most dirty and tiring work."
Shanghai Rego International School in deep sh*t over visa-less teachers
Nicholas English of City Weekend posed as a parent and walked straight into a parent-teacher meeting Wednesday night at Shanghai Rego International School’s Minhang campus. Teachers at the school, he found, were not here on proper work visas, and the school was having trouble paying them on time:
Crackdown underway on foreigners teaching without work visas
The Shanghai police has sent out a reminder of its warning to foreigners without work visas not to look for employment in the city. If found out, you'll be fined and deported, they said.
Filipino teachers accused of mistreating kids at expensive kindergarten in Nanjing
An expensive private kindergarten in Nanjing has been accused of hiring unqualified teachers from the Philippines who are allegedly mistreating kids and asking parents for more cash:
Jiaotong Uni to set up shop in Singapore
Foreign universities may all be flocking to China but Chinese universities are also taking the first tentative steps overseas. Shanghai Jiaotong University is setting up a new research centre with the National University of Singapore to work on Energy and Environmental Sustainability Solutions for Megacities.
Another day, another school bus accident
A kindergarten school bus collided with a truck in Puyang, Henan province this afternoon. All 10 children and 2 adults were saved and only suffered from slight injuries.
High school student jumps off the building to show his love
A high school student in Shangrao, Jiangxi province, recently jumped off the building to show a girl his love after he was rejected by her.
After recent school bus tragedy, China donates school buses to Macedonia
China has donated school buses to Macedonia, and these buses were handed over to the south-eastern European country yesterday.
University student killed girl after rape attempt failed
A senior student in Dongguan University of Techonology has given himself up to the police for killing a sophomore after a failed attempt to rape her. The would-be rapist surnamed Ao followed Liang Rongcai (梁荣彩), the victim, to the washroom and attempted to rape her. Encountered with Liang's resistence, Ao killed her and subsequently escaped.
6 wounded from suicide bomber attack in Shanxi school
A suicide bomber blew himself up in a primary school in Anze County, Shanxi Province, killing himself and wounding another 6. Local authorities say that at around 1530 on November 24, Feng Aihong (冯爱红), the suicide bomber detonated his explosives in a local primary school, killing himself on the spot. One teacher and five students who were having sports class were also wounded. However, they suffered only facial burns and there is no danger to their lives.
Students in Fujian made to line the streets to welcome provincial leaders
On Nov. 23rd, in Gutian County, Ningde City of Fujian Province, some 200 students were forced to leave their classes, hold bunches of flowers and stand along the roadside to "welcome" provincial leaders and media who were coming to attend a meeting.
Gansu residents mourn children killed in school bus tragedy
Residents of Lanzhou, the capital city of Gansu, gathered spontaneously to mourn those who were killed in the school bus tragedy, in which a severely overloaded school bus collided with a truck, leaving more than 20 killed and dozens more injured.
Fury rises over Gansu school bus tragedy
We told you yesterday about a school bus tragedy in Zhengning (正宁) County of Qingyang (庆阳) City in Western China's Gansu province in which a minibus overcrowded with preschoolers crashed with a truck, killing 20 and injuring dozens. Public anger is now rising over the incident, which today topped the list of trending topics on Sina Weibo, China's most popular microblogging platform.
UC Berkeley's engineering college headed for Shanghai
UC Berkeley's College of Engineering has announced a new partnership with the Shanghai Zhangjiang Hi-Tech Park to develop what it describes as a "a platform for expanding industrial and academic research collaborations in Asia and fostering global learning opportunities for Berkeley students."
After the Tiger Mom comes the "Wolf Father"
China Hush points us to a man named Xiao Baiyou (萧百佑) who has recently been making waves across China as a "Wolf Father" who imposes strict restrictions on his children and will beat them if they fail to meet his standards. Although controversial and violent, his parenting method appears to be very successful -- at least outwardly. Three of his four children have been admitted into Peking University, arguably China's most prestigious university. Many parents have sent their own children to Xiao so that he could teach them during the winter and summer vacations.
China top sender of students to the US
Students from China at U.S. colleges and universities surged 23 percent this year to 157,558, accounting for more than a fifth of all international scholars in the country.
Watch: Teacher forces two children to slap each other continuously for being late
In a video spreading like wildfire around the 'nets, two students who reportedly caused their class's school bus to leave late are forced by their teacher to stand for five minutes and repeatedly hit each other across the face.
Students protest against university in Mianyang, Sichuan
Around 300 students from Sichuan province's Mianyang Normal University (绵阳师范学院) hit the city's streets on November 4 in protest for their diplomas. Students gathered at the main entrance of the university and then marched towards the municipal government building, holding banners saying they had been deceived by university authorities.
Tricks are for kids?! 20 teenage girls caught working in prostitution ring
Around 20 girls under the age of 18, including two under the age of 14, have had a prostitution ring of their own making uncovered in Shanghai's Zhabei district, after a customer who had his watch stolen reported the ring to local authorities.
The story of a 14-year-old HIV-positive boy
A 14-year-old boy is the only pupil studying at a village school near Dandong (丹东) in Liaoning province. His surname is Feng, and he is HIV-positive. He has been suffering from discrimination by his fellow villagers, and was rejected by the local elementary school. However, in the elementary school set up specifically for him, he enjoys complete freedom from discrimination. This is because there are only two people in the school: Feng, who is 14 years old, and Wang Lijun, 63 years old who teaches Feng and plays with him.
Children left behind by China's modernization
A series of photos entitled "My younger brother wants to sleep", in which a schoolgirl is seen taking care of her younger brother during class, recently went viral on the Chinese internet. The girl in the photo, Long Zhanghuan, is from a small village in Central China's Hunan Province. The boy she is looking after is her 2-year-old cousin.
Watch: Migrant workers' children crying after school ordered to shut
A school for the children of Beijing's migrant workers, Dongba Experimental School (东坝实验学校) in Chaoyang district, was ordered to shut in August before the school year began, as part of the government's effort to keep migrant workers from settling permanently in Beijing. Though the staff decided to continue holding classes despite the official pressure, the teachers could finally continue no further, and had to announce that the school would be ending classes permanently.
Beijing elementary school students trounced by Russian counterparts 0:15 in soccer friendly
The soccer team of an elementary school in Beijing was demolished by its Russian counterpart in a friendly match 0:15, according to Beijing Times journalist Zhang Bin. Zhang said over Sina Weibo yesterday:
"Fake" police officers actually legit, not trying to steal your children
The plainclothes "fake police" trying to "lure foreign kids into their cars" two days ago were actually legitimate police officers who simply had a miscommunication with the young students due to their poor spoken English.
Fake police officers luring foreign kids into cars
Attention all parents, you'll want to take note of this one! Fake police officers have been caught trying to lure students of the Dulwich College Shanghai into their cars in broad daylight outside Carrefour Jinqiao. The following letter sent by the Deutsche Schule Shanghai and Dulwich College to parents (you'll find the English portion on page 2) was forwarded to us by a concerned reader. If you have kids attending school in Shanghai, make sure they know they should never ever talk to strangers, accept food from them, or enter their vehicles.
Video: Everything you need to know about China in 10 minutes
Okay, probably not everything you need to know, but this video certainly makes the best attempt we've seen so far. They cover everything from economics and regional development to eating habits and even how the concepts of face and guanxi can influence corruption. Despite a few weird mistakes made by the narrator (like China's "five million year history") the entire film is very well made with lots of aesthetically pleasing infographics. Seems like the perfect primer for anybody looking to absorb China 101 over their lunch break.
Is the US falling behind China in education?
America's top teacher Michelle Shearer visits China to find out...

